The Battle of Meudon took place on 3 April 1871 between the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...

and Versaillais government forces near

Meudon Meudon () is a municipality in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is in the département of Hauts-de-Seine. It is located from the center of Paris. The city is known for many historic monuments and some extraordinary trees. One of t ...

in the

Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

. The battle was part of the attempts by the Paris Commune to seize

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

, the seat of

Adolphe Thiers Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic. Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...

’ government, and it ended in a defeat for the Federates.

Troops

Federates

The Federates were commanded by General Émile Eudes, assisted by

Louis-Antoine Ranvier Louis-Antoine Ranvier (2 October 1835 – 22 March 1922) was a French physician, pathologist, anatomist and histologist, who discovered the nodes of Ranvier, regularly spaced discontinuities of the myelin sheath, occurring at varying intervals alon ...

and Avrial. They were accompanied by 10,000 men and 8 cannons, however, they were largely disorganized. The National Guards thought they were participating in a simple military parade, that the Versailles army would fraternize with them, and were devoid of officers and non-commissioned officers. There were also no reserves, supplies, and they only had eight cannons to fire, while Paris housed hundreds of artillery pieces and several years of ammunition.

Versailles

The Versailles defense of Meudon was entrusted to a corps of gendarmes numbering about a thousand men entrenched in the town's castle. They had the support of an artillery battery built on an old Prussian position. General La Mariouse's brigade was stationed at

Viroflay Viroflay () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the south-western suburbs of Paris from the center and from the Palace of Versailles. The town motto is ''Lux mea lex'' which is ...

. It was composed of the 35th and 42nd regiments. These two regiments were the only surviving regiments of the former imperial army and were among the best Versailles units. Four other regiments (one marine infantry, one marine rifleman, and two line) were also sent to hold Meudon and reinforce La Mariouse's brigade.

The Battle

The battle began with a Versailles bombardment of the Federates from the Meudon battery. This bombardment caused chaos among the Federates who were surprised by the fighting. The rear retreated precipitously to

Fort d'Issy Fort d'Issy was one of the fortifications of the city of Paris, France, built between 1841 and 1845. It was one of six forts built to the south of the main wall around the city. The fort was placed too close to the city to be effective, and had a p ...

and the front entered Meudon at a charge. Once there, without command, the Federate soldiers did not know what to do and could not take advantage of their numerical superiority. Indeed, the village was then defended only by a thousand gendarmes who held the castle. Running out of ammunition, they were eventually chased away by the Federates and retreated to the rest of the village and the old Prussian batteries. In early afternoon, Versailles General La Mariouse arrived with 9,000 reinforcements. He managed to retake the castle. However, the Federates maintained themselves in the rest of the village. Their lack of artillery began to be felt and new Parisian attacks ran up against the walls of the village. Eudes then ordered a retreat which ended at Fort d'Issy where Ranvier had returned to install artillery.

Bibliography

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References

Paris Commune 19th century in Paris April 1871 events

History of Hauts-de-Seine {{france-battle-stub